US chemical sector jobs gain in Sep while plastics workers decline

05 October 2012 17:04[Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS)--The ?xml:namespace>US chemicals industry added 1,600 workers in September from the previous month, the Labor Department said on Friday, but the plastics and rubber sector saw job losses of 200 during the month.

In its monthly report on employment, the department said that the chemicals industry workforce rose to 799,600 last month from the August level of 798,000, a gain of 0.2%.

The chemicals sector workforce is 0.7% larger than September last year when it measured 794,200, according to the department.

While jobs in the plastics and rubber industry declined marginally in September, the sector’s workforce was essentially flat with August at 648,500.

In addition, the nation’s plastics and rubber firms have seen fairly robust employment growth over the last 12 months, according to the department, with the sector’s labour force higher by 11,400 jobs compared with September 2011, a gain of 1.8%.

The increase in chemical sector jobs was part of an overall US employment gain of 114,000 in September and helped lower the nation’s unemployment rate to 7.8% from the August reading of 8.1%.